16th Sunday after Pentecost 20 Sep 2020 Sermon

 

16^th Sunday after Pentecost 20.9.20 Humility

 The pharisees were preoccupied with the rules and missed the forest for the trees.

Or, as Our Lord put it, they strained the gnat and swallowed the camel (Mt 23,24).

It is always possible in the spiritual life to become bogged down on a detail while missing the overall vision.

The pharisees’ carping over cures on the sabbath day was certainly a case of missing the main point.

The sabbath is special because it enables us to deepen our link with God, and that is the main point.

Not doing work enables us to have a more reflective time to contemplate the glories of God.

We do not overplay the rules, nor do we go to the other extreme of declaring that rules don’t matter.

Our Lord was not saying: throw out all the rules – but to see the inner meaning of such rules as there are, and live by the spirit of the rule, not just the letter. The letter kills, the spirit gives life (2 Co 3,6).

Some think of Our Lord as a kind of hippy who went about ignoring the rules. He did not ignore them; He revealed their deeper meaning.

The sabbath is to glorify God. What better way to glorify God than by bringing His healing power into operation?

The rules are not meant to stifle us, but rather to bring out different aspects of our faith and how we should live.

For example, the rule that all Catholics should attend Sunday Mass. This is meant to help us realize how much we need the Mass. Ideally everyone would come to Mass without being told, but the Church knows that people can be weak, and so gives them a prod to take advantage of such a blessing.

The rules are still there but we should reach a point that we do not need to be told.

In today’s permissive times many argue that the Church should do away with what rules still remain, and leave everything to the individual to decide.

This is to exaggerate greatly the wisdom of the average person.

It is pride to say: I don’t need the Church, or the sacraments, or any of that. I have my own communication with God.

True humility will be willing to admit one’s own limitations – of knowledge, of will power. We sometimes need  help to know the right path to follow.

We always need help to put our good intentions into action.

Humility is needed, and above all, charity.

Our humanity is sorely tried in seeking to have charity for all around us. We see imperfections at many levels.

Whether it be parishes, groups, religious orders, seminaries, convents…. Always there are difficulties with agreeing and getting along. Catholics are never as good as they should be.

This does not mean we abandon the whole project. We recognise the failings, we repent of them, and we do better in the future. We make sure that the internal purity of intention matches the external visible elements.

If we look humble, we must be humble. If we preach charity, we must be charitable.

It has to be every day of the week, not just Sunday. It has to be in everyday places, not just inside churches. We must be the same in private as we are in public.

We keep the rules at whatever level they apply, never stopping just with externals.

There are many potential difficulties but they can all be overcome.

Christ soars over all of it, and draws us towards Himself. To love God with our whole hearts and minds is the greatest rule, and the one from which all others take their place.